Arm Yourself with Vigilance

When emotions become habit, they are hard to avert with antidotes.
Therefore, with mindfulness and vigilance, to seize the weapon of the antidote
And crush the afflictions of attachment and the rest
The very moment they arise is the practice of bodhisattvas.

Everything is a matter of habit and familiarity—our emotions, outlook, behavior, and so on. For instance, people who are strongly habituated to anger have an angry disposition. If they deepen this habit, they will become even more aggressive. This applies likewise to the other emotions, such as attachment, jealousy, and the rest and to positive qualities, such as compassion, patience, and diligence. As Shantideva said, 

There’s nothing at all that is not easy
If you are used to it.

In India, in the past, there was a group of fishermen. They lived with the smell of fish from morning to night, seven days a week, so they had long grown used to it. One day, there was

a festival nearby, so they took some time off work and went to watch the performances. They were so engrossed by the show that they completely lost track of the time. When the sun began to set, they realized they better hurry home. They quickly set off, but before they could get very far, the sky grew dark. Their path home passed through an area of dense forest where wild lions and leopards roamed, so they all agreed it would be safer to seek shelter for the night and continue their journey in the morning.

There were no houses nearby, but they saw a temple in the distance, so they decided to sleep there. Inside, the temple was immaculate. Not only was it clean and tidy but the air was sweet with the smell of incense and the altar was full of fresh offerings and an abundance of fragrant flowers. The fishermen lay down, but, try as they might, none of them could fall asleep. Weary and restless, they sat up and asked each other, “What is going on? Why can’t we sleep?!”

“Surely it is the stench of those flowers. Who on earth could sleep with such a foul smell?!” one of them said. They all agreed this was the problem. 

“Well, do we have one of our baskets?” (These were the baskets they used for storing fish.) 

“Yes, I have one,” one of the fishermen said. They filled the basket with water to release its smell, wafted it around the temple, and then, with a sigh of relief, they all fell sound asleep.

This story illustrates the power of habit. We feel comfortable with what we are familiar with, no matter how unwholesome it might be. These fishermen preferred the smell of fish guts to the smell of fresh flowers not because fish guts smell good but because that was what they were used to. As sentient beings, we have grown used to disturbing emotions over the course of countless lifetimes, so these emotional habits run very deep. They are so ingrained in us that we cannot discard them immediately. Nevertheless, now that we have encountered Buddha’s teachings and met genuine spiritual teachers, we can begin to undo these habits bit by bit by training on the path.

Mindfulness is necessary to accomplish even the simplest of mundane tasks. No need to mention its importance when accomplishing the sacred Dharma, from the vehicle of characteristics up to the Great Perfection, the pinnacle of vehicles. Here, in this context, mindfulness is the recollection of what is to be adopted and what is to be avoided. Thus, with mindfulness, the bodhisattva recalls the faults of the afflictions and the excellent qualities of bodhichitta. They recall that the afflictions have been torturing them and all mother-beings for countless lifetimes until now. With vigilance—the constant examination of the state of one’s body, speech, and mind—the bodhisattva keeps track of what they are thinking, doing, and saying. They ask themselves, Are my words, thoughts, and deeds in accord with the way of the bodhisattvas or not?

It is when people lack vigilance that they make the most mistakes. This is especially the case these days, since most people focus their attention outward, instead of looking in at themselves. They concern themselves with others’ business, things that are really not their concern, and they fail to turn their gaze inward and examine their own behavior, their own state of mind. From a lack of vigilance comes many downfalls. From the presence of vigilance comes a wealth of good qualities.

From a lack of vigilance comes many downfalls. From the presence of vigilance comes a wealth of good qualities.

Maintaining mindfulness and vigilance is likened to taking up weapons. If you are armed with a sword or a gun, and you keep your weapon in your hand, no one will dare attack you because you are ready to strike back. Even if someone does dare to attack, you will easily fend them off. Similarly, when the bodhisattva arms themselves with the weapons of mindfulness and vigilance, they can notice the emotions as soon as they rear their heads, and then they can immediately crush them with the antidote. Thereby, they prevent the emotion from taking root in their mind. This is the meaning of burjom, of crushing (jom) an emotion the moment it arises (bur).

For instance, if you see a spark of fire land on a patch of dry grass and set it alight, it is easy to put the fire out. But if you fail to extinguish that first lick of flame and allow the fire to spread, you can end up with a devastating forest fire that no one, not even hundreds of firemen, can extinguish. 

Similarly, you might have a table whose surface is held down by four nails, one in each corner. If one of the nails starts rising up but you hammer it down immediately, no harm will be done. However, if you do nothing, the nail will continue to rise up, and then the wood will start to warp. Eventually, the other nails will also rise up and the table will be damaged beyond repair. Another example is a loose thread in a vest. If you do not cut the loose thread and sew the small hole up, but you keep pulling the thread, the whole garment will fall apart.

Therefore, when you notice an emotion arising, you should immediately recall bodhichitta, both relative and ultimate. Bodhichitta is the supreme antidote. By recollecting the great kindness of all mother-beings, by generating the wish to repay their kindness, and so on, reinvigorate your relative bodhichitta. At the same time, remind yourself that all phenomena are empty of reality, that their appearance is an illusion, and thereby cultivate ultimate bodhichitta. In this way, the bodhisattva crushes emotions the moment they arise.

♦

From Loving All: Stories from My Life, My Teachers, and the Path of Compassion; A Commentary on Gyalse Togme Zangpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by Tulku Pema Rigtsal, translated by Laura Swan. © 2026 by Tulku Pema Rigtsal. Reprinted with permission from Shambhala Publications.